H-o-w-d-y F-o-l-k-s!!

The State Fair of Texas started this weekend.  It was the perfect Fair Day.  The sun was out, there was a slight breeze, the temperature was perfect and my girlfriend Karen came up from Houston to go with me.

There are several reasons I like going to the Fair on the first weekend….

1.  The park is nice and clean

2.  All of the Vendors are excited and in good moods

3.  The grease is new and clean

All’s well with the world.

Everyone has their different areas and activities of the fair that they enjoy.  Karen and I like the food, the rides and the exhibits.

Once through the gates, the first order of business is three-fold: 

Fletcher Corny Dogs (regular or jalapeño will do),

Jack's Frys (make sure they come right out of the fryer and haven't been sitting under the heat lamps!), with vinegar and seasoned salt on them.

This year they added a new Spicy variety which boiled down to a little cup of Sriracha sauce; and to wash it all down,

ice cold beer - yes, I realize it is 10:00 a.m. but it's the State Fair, so there.  This was our beer man for the day.  Karen would wink at him and we got them for 6 tickets instead of 7.  Which, by the way, the beer out on the fair grounds is 10 - 12 tickets.  Just go inside the Food Court building and you'll find your cheapest beer.  We researched this very carefully.

So, this was our main diet during the day, but we did venture out to try one of the new fried foods they always introduce.  We're very skeptical about these because, quite frankly, half of them just sound and look gross.  Last year we wasted tickets on the fried beer.  N.A.S.T.Y.

This year we tried the Big Tex Choice for Best Tasting which was the Buffalo Chicken in a Flapjack served with syrup.  Again, the key is make sure they give you one that just came out of the fryer.  This little culinary nugget was a chicken tender on a stick that had been dipped in really spicy pancake batter and fried.  This was passable, but still not worth the tickets in my opinion (better spent on beer).

Some of the others we had no intention of trying were the Fried Bubblegum, Fried 'Kraut Balls (wonder if those are as good as Shweddy Balls?), and Deep Fried Salsa.

Before we left the Food Court, we ran into this sweet young lady who was wearing an apron that I wanted.  They were not for sale anywhere at the Fair; only Food Court employees had them.  I suggested she sell it to me and tell her boss she lost hers and would need another one.  She said her boss was also her aunt and that she would know she was lying.  Great apron though, huh? 

Tucked in between the Food and Fiber building and the Fur and Feather building is a little Oasis we like to visit called the Texas Wine Garden.  There are fountains, pretty plants, jazz music playing and tables to sit and relax.    Each day three or four Texas Wineries are highlighted and you can talk to the representatives from the wineries and taste their wines.  Karen and I know from Wine Trail trips that Texas has some very good wines and I'm sure that the wineries represented Saturday were good as well, but I just can't bring myself to pay $10.00 for a little plastic wine glass of a wine I might not even like. 

 I would do better by buying a whole bottle from the store and try it; which there was one that I am going to seek out.  Karen and I really prefer wines, but the wine sold at the Fair out on the Midway is a little gut rot.  So, Karen and I find a nice table and enjoy the music, our 6 ticket beer and watch people for a little while.

Our next stop was the Food and Fiber building.  This building has all things food; Texas food.  Vendors hand out samples of their products, the Beef Council cooks fajita meat, Borden's has ice cream, and you can learn all about raising bees.

 This is Harold.  He makes and sells "Texicun Gormay Pickuls"  and they are purdy hot!!

 Karen liked the hottest ones; the Dern Hot pickles.  Turns out Karen is pretty hot herself!  Harold told her, "my pickles were the hottest things in here until you walked up to my counter."!


This lady was waiting in the free ice cream line.

We were greeted by Strawberry Shortcake

In the Embarcadero Building you can find anything to buy.  Look here, you can buy a free standing shower with a mirror in it! Oh dear, I don't think I'd want to look at myself in the mirror, in the shower; that means I'd be looking at myself naked....Y-I-K-E-S !!

You can even get a vibrating message and eat at the same time.

One of my favorite buildings is the Creative Arts Building.  Here you can see all the quilts and collections that people enter.  Including this huge wall of preserves and pickled stuff.

Each year there is a butter sculpture in this building.  Sometimes you can see the artist in his refrigerated glass cage working.  This is amazing this year; it's life size.

 Another fun annual contest they have is the Shoe Art.  There are some clever people out there.  Since I love to tap dance and drink beer, this was naturally my favorite.

 "The Stat-shoe of Flipperty"

  "Shoe - Fly"



Time for a little culture so we headed over to the plaza outside the Texas Hall of State to watch different dance groups perform. 

And look at these cuties watching with us.

There was a special exhibit in the Texas Hall of State building celebrating the State's 175th Anniversary.  They had all sorts of artifacts from Davy Crockett's pipe and pistol,

period costumes, including a gown worn by the Grand Duchess of Texas during the 1940 Galveston Mardi Gras,

to this very important piece of Texas History...

 the world's first frozen margarita machine.  As the sign mentions above, this is actually a replica of the original that is housed in the Smithsonian; she is referred to as Maggie-Rita.

I’ve never been crazy about the Midway ripoffs games.  The only thing I liked about the Midway at the Tulsa State Fair,when I was a little girl, was getting the felt hat with a feather in it and my name written in cursive in shiny silver glitter. 

Here's a guy using his very scary appendage to lure us in to his Fright House.

Here's the Midway Barker.  He lives on a pole.  He's actually pretty funny; very quick witted.  I posted a little bit of video I took of him here

 This is a really fun treat for adults and children.  Everything in The Greenhouse is made out of some sort of plant.

 Wind turbines

 My favorite (and the the primary exhibit in here), the trains.

 Even all of the tracks and bridges are made out of twigs and branches.

I could watch these for hours.  But we didn't.  It was getting late in the day and we had other things to see.

Like this.  Wish I had this talent.

 and this,

 and this,

and this (what's up with the animals on the back?),

 and this,

 and this.   Is he sucking that in on purpose??

Now here's a couple of ladies who are mighty proud of the junk in their trunk.  Sure hope the lady in the red shoes has a good man at home to rub her feet tonight!

Well, that was our day at the Fair and we sure enjoyed ourselves!  I'm already looking forward to next year!!

Jamie Wichita Miss

My in-laws used to own a ranch between Weatherford and Mineral Wells.  Geema had every type of fowl you can imagine.  I loved Mr. and Mrs. Peacock.  The Guinea Hens made me laugh the way they ran around like crazy birds.  They also had ducks and hens.  Goats and barbado sheep also inhabited the ranch.

In their younger days Papa and Geema showed Tennessee Walkers.  Walkers became the horse of choice at the ranch.  They were wonderful animals and have such a smooth gait; you could ride for hours without getting a sore bum.

Papa enjoyed raising Longhorns.  Papa’s herd had some sweet little calves and when it came time to register them Papa incorporated my, Char’s, and Chris’ name into the registered names of three of them.I ran across this in the piles of memorabilia that I kept over the years.

This is a copy of my certificate for Jamie Wichita Miss.

And here is a photo that Papa took of her with his trusty Polaroid Camera.

She’s the little white and red one in the foreground.  Her mama is standing behind her; her name was YO Waco Wichita Miss 115.

Although Longhorn cows can live up to thirty years, Jamie Wichita Miss is probably no longer living, but if she is she would be almost 25 years old.

Memories Re-Surfaced

Since we are having the hottest and most miserable summer since 1980, I have not been able to start any new landscaping for the house.  We put in an irrigation system for flower beds and amended the soil with rich soil, but the only thing planted in the garden is a small Japanese Maple.  It’s been too hot for anything else; 69+ days over 100°.  The grass out front is dead.  I did plant some Cannas that my brother gave me and lilies that my sister gave me but that was back before the 100° days began.

Since I can’t get out and dig in the dirt I have started on a couple of indoor projects that are turning out to be huge.  We have committed to “no more cardboard boxes”.  They wear out, become dust and bug infested and on and on.  Therefore, anything we have to store over the garage will be put in plastic bins.

A lot of our stuff is already stored this way but there are items that have been stored in cardboard boxes for years and years.   Firstly (is that a real word?), there are thousands of photographs and negatives dating back to the sixties.


Then there are cards and letters by the gazillions that I have kept.  I mean, I kept EVERYTHING!!! 

There are boxes and boxes of framed portraits, photos, pictures of the girls at all stages of their lives, family photos from both sides of our families and all sorts of special interest photos that, at the time, we felt compelled to frame in ridiculously large sizes.

It still cracks me up that Char actually spotted the photographer up in the trees and waved to him.



I’ll be putting a lot of these into albums but the really old family photos that are still in their original frames will be packed away once again, except in plastic bins.

The items I  have unearthed that make me smile the most are mementos from elementary school through the present; Playbills, ticket stubs from movies, concerts and the theater; newspapers from JFK’s assassination, Oswald’s death, Eisenhower’s death,  RFK’s assassination, MLK’s assassination, Princess Diana's death, among others.

I was obviously fascinated with the tragedy of lives ended too soon.  I look at all of this stuff and wonder what it was I was trying to hold on to;  or hoping not to forget.

I have no clue why I would want to keep this.  Was it that I wanted to remember that “Get Back /  Don’t Let Me Down” by The Beatles was number 1 on the KAKC Hit List during the week of May 7^th?

No.


See that little “star” I penciled in besides #21?  I was absolutely mad about the”Love Theme From Romeo & Juliet” by Henry Mancini. 

I was even crazier about the movie.  This is still one of my all time favorite, romantic movies.   And I still have this LP.

There was this.

 The program from the Tulsa Tennis Club’s Annual Invitational Tournament during the Spring of 1969.

 Take a look at this little guy who competed that year.  Although he lost in the 2^nd round to Bob McKinley I don't feel too sorry for him.  I’d say he ended up going places didn’t he?